The Official Community Plan update has had third reading and will now be sent to the Islands Trust and other external agencies for review.
Two councillors did not believe there had been enough time for council and the public to digest the changes that have been made in the months since first reading, but the other four felt it was time to move on.
Councillor Doug Hooper said it's been "a remarkable process and a dramatic improvement from the 1992 and 1995 process. Both the process and the content are outstanding."
He said there have been claims in the media and a court filing that the OCP not go ahead. He asked if council was authorized to give third reading given that there's a court petition from Wolfgang Duntz and Richard Underhill that says that proper consultation has not been followed.
Director of planning Hap Stelling says he has had no advice from the municipal solicitor.
Councillor Cro Lucas, who voted against third reading along with Councillor Alison Morse, said, "I'm not comfortable with the amount of scrutiny to all the points that were raised at the public meeting. This is a hurried process."
Councillor Peter Frinton said that while he has some concerns that the update doesn't face difficult decisions about density, for instance, "I'm very pleased we have this document in front of us. I think it reflects the process that has brought us this far and has hope for future amendments." He's always thought it should be an ongoing process.
Morse said she was concerned that major problems have arisen since the steering committee first presented the OCP document to council. The steep slopes and environmentally sensitive areas additions were added after the committee's work "and to me we haven't listened. I'd still like to see a full report of the issues that were raised at the public hearing." Some of those issues included the maps and "whether we can do some of the things we're doing."
She also repeated that adding the word "natural" in front of the word environment makes the document very restrictive.
Councillor Nerys Poole says that comments about the OCP itself were few at the public meeting. (Most were about the three accompanying land use bylaws. Council has committed to revising the steep slopes and ESA bylaws but are leaving the maps that identify where they are in the update.)
"At some point it's important to say we've done the best we can and we're moving forward," she said. "It's not perfect [but] we need a community plan that will guide future developments, affordable housing, zero waste, density allocations.... We are in danger of holding up a lot of other initiatives. It's critical to move this forward."
Mayor Bob Turner said, "completing the OCP allows the next council to move forward with initiatives such as Snug Cove. It was always on our shoulders to advance this in a timely fashion and get the job done so the next council can move towards implementation. It's not a perfect document but it is a good and solid document. I'm delighted to advance this... so the community can move on to other things."
